


i will be your scarecrow

by blueinkedbones



Series: close your eyes and see [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen, near death hale family bonding, risk and reward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-27
Updated: 2013-06-27
Packaged: 2017-12-16 07:18:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/859407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueinkedbones/pseuds/blueinkedbones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Who killed Erica?”</p><p>“Does it matter?” Cora snaps. “Neither of us would’ve touched her if it was up to us. What happened to her is as much our fault as the pipe Demonwolf shoved in your chest.”</p><p>"You didn’t have a choice," Derek says. He thinks of Deucalion drawling, “I want you to kill one of them." He rolls over, presses his cheek against the cool wood paneling, tries to think. Isn’t that what Scott always does? <em>Think</em>.</p><p>Risk and reward.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i will be your scarecrow

“I’m not disappointed,” Cora says. Her palm is cool against the itch of Derek’s skin stretching to come together again, growing slippery with warm blood. He tries not to think too much about what that would symbolize if his life was written by Edgar Allen Poe, but his little sister kneeling by him, his blood on her hands, is still forever preferable to the alternative.

“You’re not.” Derek’s voice is a dry rattle wrapped in a wet cough. He’s skeptical, of course.  _You have any idea how it felt finding out you were alive?_ Derek knows too well. Knows those first few days just gagging, those months just following Laura, eyes blind, senses dull, the sick sour taste in his mouth knowing what he did, what he helped Kate do—

Knowing that they’re the only ones left, he’s the only one left, he  _knows_ —

“I thought it was Peter,” Cora says stiffly. Derek’s mouth twists into a bitter smirk; his throat clogs with dirty blood going the wrong way, but he swallows hard, forces it down. It’s a bad idea; the resulting eruption just barely misses Cora’s sneakers.

“He’s alive,” Derek says when he can breathe again. “He killed Laura,” he adds, half anger, half desperate plea. He knows he’s being transparent, pathetic, but he can’t layer anything stronger on top of this, not right now.

“I know,” Cora says. “That’s why I’m still here.”

She’s lying.

Derek sags, nods. Coughs. Blood bubbles on his lips.

Cora sighs.

“Don’t be an idiot, Derek. I just wish—”

It’s fine, Derek understands. She wishes he was Laura, or Mom, or anyone else. Anyone other than soft, stupid Derek, quiet Derek with the lacrosse and the books and the  _humanity_  the rest of the pack knew in advance to take as a betrayal. And now he’s just Derek the idiot, breaking things and destroying lives, dragging kids into danger, never _thinking_. He knows.

Derek nods. Blood trickles down his jaw, and his eyes roll back in his head.

“Why aren’t you healing?” Cora’s leaning over him now, breath cool on his cheek, hands like a tourniquet around the hole in his chest, trying to force the wound back together. Derek’s head spins, and he thinks of being face-down in the dewy grass outside Scott’s school, the memory of Peter’s claws still sharp in his gut.

“It was an Alpha,” he says, breath raspy and harsh. Cora growls just slightly. “Lasts longer. You know that.”

“But it’s not like—” She makes an odd sound, an almost fond half-laugh. It makes Derek want to tear his eyelids open and study the expression on her face. He hasn’t seen her smile in six years. “A broken arm, or something. It’s a pipe. How does your body know an Alpha did that?”

“I don’t know,” Derek says, eyes lighting with tears the second he tries exposing them. Cora’s growl is sharper now, horrified. She shouldn’t have to see him like this. “It just does. You should get out of here.”

“What, and miss all the fun?” Her voice is brittle, almost unsteady. Her hands are very still.

“There’s a bed. You should sleep.”

“Like hell.” There’s not a shade of humor in this laugh. “You could’ve died. You look like you’re still dying.”

“Sleep,” Derek insists. Cora hisses at him.

“You think just because I was a kid six years ago I’m still a kid now? I’m not a beta, Derek, I’m an omega. I don’t listen to anyone but myself.”

“Omega,” Derek repeats. It’s a strange word, a word for the wolf in the woods, Gerard Argent’s long blade. It’s not a word he wants anywhere near his sister.

“The pack doesn’t survive,” Cora says matter-of-factly. “We both know that. We did it alone. That girl in the vault was just one more example.”

“Erica,” Derek says. “What happened to her?”

“Survival of the fittest,” Cora says. “She didn’t fit.”

Derek frowns. “What?”

“The  _apex predator_  wanted a power couple, not a threesome. Tried to make us fight it out. He’ll do the same to you and your pack. Whatever it takes.”

“Who killed Erica?”

“Does it matter?” Cora snaps. “What happened to her is as much our fault as the pipe Demonwolf shoved in your chest.”

"You didn’t have a choice," Derek says. He thinks of Deucalion drawling, “I want you to kill one of them." He rolls over, presses his cheek against the cool wood paneling, tries to think. Isn’t that what Scott always does?  _Think_.

Risk and reward.

 

 

"But you’re staying," he tells Cora as Isaac’s footsteps sound on the stairs. “He doesn’t want me to kill you, and I—Stay. Just—I have to do this first."

"This is a stupid idea," she says. Derek swallows hard. “Why can’t you just  _tell_  him?"

"I just can't."

Cora raises her eyebrows. 

"His father locked him in a freezer as a punishment," Derek says, "and he’s his freaking anchor. You think he’d ever leave if he thought I was protecting him? I know what I’m doing, Cora. What I’m giving up."

"I don’t think you do," Cora says, but she falls silent as Isaac walks through the door.

Derek closes his eyes, summons up all the anger he can. Anchors it under his tongue like acid.

Breathes like there aren't razorblades raking at his throat. Till his heartbeat is even, a silenced revolver. 

Opens his eyes.

Picks up the glass.

**Author's Note:**

> tag to 3.04, _unleashed_.  
>  title is a lyric from bleeding out by imagine dragons


End file.
